Anitta

(CelebrityAccess) – Just another Thursday night in Kensington; a Brazilian pop juggernaut named Anitta and her nine back-up dancers are shaking their arses on stage at the Royal Albert Hall. The crowd, dazzlingly dressed ex-pats in hot pants, halterneck tops and glitter, are hollering back every lyric that leaves her mouth. For a moment, it feels like the grandiose building has transformed into a sweaty, queer pop club in Rio. That’s the power of Anitta, a pop star who’s name most Brits won’t recognise, but who boasts one of the industry’s most impressive CVs.

She’s got an Instagram following of over 30 million, a line-up of collaborators that includes Alesso, Iggy Azalea and Major Lazer, and the honourable title of being the first Brazilian artist to nab over 100 million views on YouTube (though that’s a figure she’s now dwarfed), but Anitta’s an old hand at the pop thing now. The 25-year-old’s eponymous debut album dropped five years ago this week, going platinum before similarly heady levels of success were achieved with the two records that followed. She’s a household name in her home country, Portugal and much of Central and South America, but elsewhere, she’s being slept on.

With a cheeky stage demeanour that would rival our most admired pop names (“Did you think I would come here and not shake my ass?!” she bellows to the crowd), her recent shows have knocked people’s socks off – ours included. It might not be long before her name will be uttered in the same sentence as the likes of Shakira and Beyoncé. But for all of her star quality, she’s brilliantly humble; a byproduct of her upbringing in the socially and economically diverse neighbourhoods of Rio de Janeiro.

To find out more about this frankly quite iconic pop queen, Douglas Greenwood from NME met her minutes before she went on stage in front of her hysterical London crowd to talk world domination, body positivity, and the explosion of latin flavours in mainstream pop.

“I don’t use the word domination, because it suggests competition. I’m already happy with what I have, so, if I get more it’s only a bonus! I’m not the kind of person who complains [about where I am in life] everyday.”

Douglas: What’s it like to take your sound to an international audience?

“The first time I sang [in English] was a year ago, so everything to me has felt really fast! Now we’re taking advantage of it. Here, [at tonight’s concert], the majority of the audience is Brazilian, but here we can show what Brazil – which is huge, and has people all over the world – can do, and what I can do with them.”

Douglas: You’re collaborating with some crazy people as well.

“Yeah, they help me a lot too! People like J Balvin [who appears on Cardi B’s I Like That], Major Lazer, Alesso, Poo Bear… they helped me to make this whole journey move a little faster. Now, I need to keep the ball rolling!”

Douglas: Latin-infused pop is having a real moment right now, and artists like Justin Bieber and Cardi B are championing it in the charts here. Are you happy about those guys being the ones to make the genre big?

“I think it’s an opportunity for everybody who has been doing it [for longer to have their work noticed]. I’m happy with everything I’ve built though, so I’m continuing to do what I do.”

Douglas Greenwood from NME: You’re considered a gay icon in Brazil, and have worked with Pablo Vitarr, a huge drag queen in Brazil who’s made music with people like Charli XCX and Diplo. What’s your relationship like?

“When I make music, I always try to do more than make a song that makes people dance and have fun. I try to send a message, or give a reason for people to discuss it further. That’s why I invited Pablo to the track with Major Lazer. In an entertaining way, I can show that there are all different kinds of people who don’t have a big space [in mainstream music]. We chose to shoot the video in Morocco – which is a very conservative country – as if to say ‘This is a drag queen, Morocco! Dancing in tiny clothes!’”

Douglas: Your work celebrates body positivity in a really unique way. For example, you don’t doctor your cellulite out of your videos.

“People care a lot about what others think about them. At the end of the day, all that’s important is that you’re happy, so I try be as honest as I can with everything. So when I show my cellulite off in the video, it was to show that women don’t need to care about that.”

“I’ve made a lot of changes with my body though, sure. I’ve had a lot of plastic surgery and I’m completely honest about it. Some people question it: ‘We need to accept our cellulite, but you had plastic surgery?!’ Of course! With plastic surgery, I have the chance to go to sleep and wake up looking different. To get rid of my cellulite, I’d have to go on a diet. I don’t want to do that, I want to eat. If I want a hamburger, I’ll have one.”

Douglas: I like your priorities.

“It’s easy for me to change my nose, you know? My ass? Not so easy. There’s no right way to be a woman, there’s only a right way to be a human, which is to have respect for others.”

Douglas: So do you think, overall, the music industry fears powerful women like you?

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So, we got tickets for the Shawn Mendes concert on August 6. However, getting here we realized it was for 2019. And we weren’t the only ones! We will be back next year! pic.twitter.com/LXmgm6ySIC

When Jay-Z and Beyoncé arrive in Columbia later this month to play a show at the 80,000-seat football stadium at University of South Carolina, some kids will get a break, with the school district dismissing six schools early because of traffic concerns ... Atlanta rapper Killer Mike has joined the board of the city's High Museum of Art, saying he plans to help grow and diversify its audience (Keinon Johnson of Interscope Records has also joined the 85-member panel)... Despite being barred from leaving Russia, Pussy Riot activist Maria Alyokhina has left anyway and is traveling to the U.K.'s Edinburgh Fringe festival to do a performance based on her book, according to a statement from the Pussy Riot punk collective ... Justin Timberlake has announced his book "Hindsight" that will have photos of his childhood and will be "spotlighting some of the important people and places that have informed my music" ...

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John Page, general manager of the SMG-managed Greater Columbus Convention Center, was selected by his peers for his leadership, business and civic contributions and will be included among the 2018 Most Admired Chief Operating Officers by Columbus Business First. Authorities say the Rascal Flatts concert that was promptly halted last week in Indiana was because of a bomb threat that was deemed a credible danger. Some folks arrived at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh Aug. 6 for a Shawn Mendes concert only to realize the show was Aug. 6, 2019.

So, we got tickets for the Shawn Mendes concert on August 6. However, getting here we realized it was for 2019. And we weren’t the only ones! We will be back next year! pic.twitter.com/LXmgm6ySIC

When Jay-Z and Beyoncé arrive in Columbia later this month to play a show at the 80,000-seat football stadium at University of South Carolina, some kids will get a break, with the school district dismissing six schools early because of traffic concerns ... Atlanta rapper Killer Mike has joined the board of the city's High Museum of Art, saying he plans to help grow and diversify its audience (Keinon Johnson of Interscope Records has also joined the 85-member panel)... Despite being barred from leaving Russia, Pussy Riot activist Maria Alyokhina has left anyway and is traveling to the U.K.'s Edinburgh Fringe festival to do a performance based on her book, according to a statement from the Pussy Riot punk collective ... Justin Timberlake has announced his book "Hindsight" that will have photos of his childhood and will be "spotlighting some of the important people and places that have informed my music" ...

Ticketmaster helps get a Pittsburgh family to a Taylor Swift show after getting scammed out of tickets that came through their site .. The official hotel for Red Rocks Amphitheatre near Denver, a 124-room with a restaurant called Origin Red Rocks, is expected to debut tomorrow. Louisville, Ky., is holding its DeaFestival-Kentucky 2018 festival, an event hard-of-hearing and deaf culture featuring more than 50 visual and performing artists, next month at the city's Galt House ... The Yelm UFO Fest and Symposium, a three-day festival near Mt. Rainier, Wash., that includes a stage featuring jazz, blues, rock, interpretive dance, etc., plus all things involving little green men, has wrapped (last year's event, which takes place near the very first UFO sighting in 1947, included a "blatant mid-day sighting" of UFOs that dubbed the event "the UFO fest where the UFOs actually show up").

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